


Hold Your Silver Tongue

by swiftishere



Series: MSA One-Shots [10]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arguing, Arthur is Fucking Scary When He's Mad, Gen, Locked up, Prompt Fill, title has been edited to be less aggressive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23179276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swiftishere/pseuds/swiftishere
Summary: Lewis has Arthur locked up and trapped, and he's more than ready to finish this job.And then he finds a computer, and a map that don't quite fit what he already knows to be true.Why was he looking? Why try this hard? Why insist so stubbornly that he doesn't already know why he's here, when hehasto have figured it out when Lewis started asking about his own murder?
Series: MSA One-Shots [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1440190
Comments: 7
Kudos: 143





	Hold Your Silver Tongue

**Author's Note:**

> written for a prompt on tumblr from @mohegan567 - the exact prompt was "Lewis manages to capture Arthur, takes him to his mansion and is ready to kill him, but for some reason he just can't"  
> the "some reason" turned out to be he's too busy going "what the FUCK is going on with you i don't understand even a little"

“Why would you _look_ for- him?” Lewis paces back and forth in front of the cell, glaring down at the computer in his hands instead of the man in front of him.

He hears a breathy, shaky laugh from his prisoner, a sound he recognizes as less actually amused and more vaguely hysterical. “Are you s- _serious_? Who the- the hell do you think you _are_ , even?”

“Why go to all this _effort_?” He elects to ignore the inflammatory question. Instead, he gestures at the computer screen, finally looking up. Arthur’s now leaning against the bars, his arm propped over his head, squinting at him in disbelief. “ _Saying_ you’ll look is one thing, but this? Why put in this much work when you _know_ -?” He looks back down at the screen, once again reviewing the map it displays. How long has he had to look? and already there’s a dozen or so locations marked off, and the sidebar shows plenty of research done into each one. It just doesn’t make _sense_ \- Arthur loves to overdo things, but even for him, going this far for a fake investigation is _a lot_.

Arthur stares at him for a moment longer, and then his gaze finally drops to the floor, his shoulders shaking with- laughter, probably, though he can’t actually hear it.

“He was my b-best friend,” he says in a low, almost toneless voice. “I loved him. Wh- why the hell _wouldn’t_ I- I-” and then he looks back up. His expression is different now, less confused. His hand shifts to grip the bars instead of passively resting against them.

 _Now he gets it_ , Lewis thinks. He’s realized that he _knows_ what he did. There’s no point in keeping up this act anymore.

“ _Oh_.”

 _Confess_.

“I get it. I-I-I get it.” He drawls out the phrase, voice laced with something Lewis barely ever hears from his- _former_ friend. He’s _angry._ “Y-you’re the one who _did_ it, are- aren’t you? Who- who t- _took_ him?”

What?

“Did you th-think I would just- _give up_?” He starts to stand - his legs shake and he has to grip the bars tighter to hold himself up, but he still does, until he’s almost at eye level with Lewis. “Y-you’d- what, _kill_ him? And I’d just t- _take it_ lying down? Like I wouldn’t want to fucking _know_ wh-what happened? Fucking _dumbass_. Of _course_ I looked!”

Lewis is having a hard time processing what Arthur’s saying. This cover took a turn for the kind of batshit. Why couldn’t he just give it up? “What do _you_ think happened?”

“I. Don’t. _Know_!” His hand shakes the bars as he lunges forward slightly, as much as he can in the small space. “You d-didn’t leave _any_ fucking trace! You-” His eyes scan Lewis’s face, mouth locked into something between a smile and a grimace. “Why the hell would you d- _do this_? You _need_ t-to kill people? Or are you one of th-those sick fucks who thinks it’s _fun_?”

Lewis narrows his eyes and tosses the computer in his hands to the side. “ _I didn’t kill Lewis Pepper_!” he snaps, lifting off the ground slightly. For a moment, fire consumes his vision as he calls forth his human guise. When it clears, Arthur’s stood back, and he takes a small amount of satisfaction from his stunned, lost expression.

“ _You did._ And you can _stop_ -”

Suddenly a hand shoots out from the bars and before Lewis can even process what’s going on, he’s grabbed by the tie and slammed into the front of the cell with surprising force. _Fuck_ , he forgot how fast Arthur could be.

Their faces are inches apart now, and even though it’s little more than a shaky whisper, he can hear Arthur perfectly when he hisses something laced with more fury than he’s… _ever_ heard in his voice. “ _You take that f-face off **right now**_ _or I s-swear-”  
_

“What’s the matter?” He forces himself to stay calm, even though he’s suddenly struggling with the powerful urge to light him on fire and get the fuck out of this room. “Can’t handle seeing the truth?”

“The _truth_?” There’s another jolt as the pressure on his neck increases. “H-hey, look, I d-don’t know what kind of fucking mess you th-think I am, but I can at least r-remember I _don’t want t-to kill my friends_.”

 _Don’t run. Don’t run. He’s still a human and you’re twenty times stronger than he is and you could incinerate him before he even laid a hand on your anchor_ -

“You think this is an _illusion_? That I’m trying to _trick_ you? _This is me, Arthur!_ I’m Lewis and I _remember what you did!_ ”

“If this is your gr-grand plan f-for me,” Arthur pulls harder again and Lewis is yanked down until they’re eye-to-eye again, “quite s-s-sincerely, _just fucking kill me now_. I- I’m _not_ falling for your _st-stupid tricks_.”

That does it. Lewis shifts his weight and uses the leverage to kick Arthur back- and he _really_ didn’t mean to do it hard, he just wanted to shove him off, but he’s also not too bothered by him slamming into the opposite wall with a smoking burn mark in his shirt.

“This isn’t over,” he says when he’s sure Arthur isn’t getting back up. “You _will_ admit what you’ve done. And you’re _not_ getting out of here until you do.”

And then he’s out of the room before he can respond.


End file.
